Jonah explains how he could beat Hillary.
“Watching [MSNBC’s] Chris Matthews interview Obama,” Ace wrote, “I was struck by just how uninterested in policy questions Matthews (and his panel) were, and how almost every question seemed to be, at heart, about Obama’s emotional response to difficulties — not about policy itself, but about Obama’s Hero’s Journey in navigating the plot of President Barack Obama: The Movie.”
I think something similar has been at the root of Trump’s success. I can’t bring myself to call him a hero, but many people see him that way. Even his critics concede that he’s entertaining. I see him as being a bit like Rodney Dangerfield, constantly complaining he doesn’t get enough respect.
Regardless, Trump bulldozed his way through the primaries in part because the nomination was his MacGuffin and people wanted to see the movie play out. Many voters, and nearly the entire press corps, got caught up in the story of Trump — much the same way the press became obsessed with the “mythic” story of Obama in 2008. People just wanted to see what happened next.
What I’d like to see happen next is the appearance of a candidate who favors limited government.
[Update a few minutes later]
The case for, and against Gary Johnson, at NRO.
Related: Thoughts from Nick Gillespie.
If there was ever a year for a libertarian breakthrough, this would be it.
[Update a while later]
Wow. Mary Matalin switches political parties:
Pressed Thursday about why she switched political parties, Matalin told Bloomberg Politics that she was a Republican in the “Jeffersonian, Madisonian sense.”
“I’m not a Republican for a party or a person,” she continued. “The Libertarian Party represents those constitutional principles that I agree with.”
Welcome.
[Update a while later]
Megan McArdle analyzes the disaster. I largely agree with her, and it was obvious to me from the beginning that Trump’s primary appeal was his celebrity, bringing out a lot of people, Republican and otherwise, who normally don’t get involved in primary elections.
I also agree that history will record that this was the fault of Bush and his donors, and the narcissism of Christie and Kasich.
[Mid-afternoon update]
It’s not too late for the Republicans to stop Trump:
Republicans would also do well to remember that democracy is not the only important value. Principles such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are far more fundamental. Trump’s platform of mass deportations (including of innocent children born in the US), massacring innocent civilians, large-scale discrimination on the basis of religion, and undermining freedom of speech is a grave threat to those values. So too is the possibility that a victory for Trump might turn the GOP into a US version of neo-Fascist European parties, such as France’s National Front. This horrendous agenda – combined with the dangerous prospect of giving such an unstable person control over the military and its nuclear arsenal – makes Trump a far greater menace than a merely ordinary flawed candidate would be.
Trump cannot be trusted with the other powers of the presidency either. As Larry Summers asks, “[w]hat will a demagogue with a platform like Trump’s… do with control over the NSA, FBI and IRS?” We should not take even a small risk of letting Trump win the presidency. Extraordinary evils sometimes demand extraordinary remedies. And Trump’s nomination easily qualifies as such. Given the nature of his agenda and temperament, the fact that Trump won some 40% of the GOP primary vote (a historically low number for a GOP nominee), is not sufficient reason to give in to him.
The Founding Fathers viewed unconstrained democracy with great suspicion, and sought to establish a constitutional system that would keep it in check. They understood that the fact that large numbers of people support a great evil does not make it right. They knew that voters are often influenced by ignorance and illogic, which are among the major causes of support for Trump. Even if blocking Trump really would be undemocratic, sometimes being undemocratic is the right thing to do. The Republican Party is a private organization, and does not have to follow a popular vote process in choosing its nominee. Indeed, such was not the process throughout most of of American history, up to the McGovern-Fraser reforms of the 1970s.
Yup.
[Update a while later]
If nothing changes, this will be the choice presented to Americans in November. An ignorant, unstable conspiracy theorist with no core principles versus an inveterate liar dedicated to ever-expanding government. Clinton and Trump are the least popular major-party candidates in the history of polling. Hillary Clinton is viewed “very unfavorably” by 37 percent of Americans; Trump is viewed “very unfavorably” by a staggering 53 percent.
I honestly don’t know which would be more likely to elect Hillary (assuming she’s the nominee): To let Trump have the nomination, or to replace him with a Republican.
[Update a few minutes later]
The election is not an A/B test:
Donald Trump is unfit for the office.
He is unfit for any office, morally and intellectually.
A man who could suggest, simply because it is convenient, that his opponent’s father had something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy is unfit for any position of public responsibility.
His long litany of lies — which include fabrications about everything from his wealth to self-funding his campaign — is disqualifying.
His low character is disqualifying.
His personal history is disqualifying.
His complete, utter, total, and lifelong lack of honor is disqualifying.
The fact that he is going to have to take time out of the convention to appear in court to hear a pretty convincing fraud case against him is disqualifying.
His time on Jeffrey Epstein’s Pedophile Island, after which he boasted about sharing a taste with Epstein for women “on the younger side,” is disqualifying.
The fact that he knows less about our constitutional order than does a not-especially-bright Rappahannock River oyster is disqualifying.
There isn’t anything one can say about Mrs. Clinton, monster though she is, that changes any of that.
Donald Trump is not fit to serve as president. He is not fit to serve on the Meade County board of commissioners. He is not fit to be the mayor of Muleshoe, Texas.
If he indeed is the Republican nominee, Donald Trump almost certainly will face Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election. That fact, sobering though it is, does not suddenly make him fit to serve as president, because — to repeat — the problem with Trump isn’t that he is less fit to serve in comparison to Mrs. Clinton, but that he is unfit to serve, period.
But other than that, he’s great.
“What I’d like to see happen next is the appearance of a candidate who favors limited government.”
Um, a pledge that his Supreme Court nominee would be a strict Constitutionalist like Justice Scalia?
His critique of “globalism” (i.e. extra-national modes of governance) and his defense of the Treaty of Westphalia in his foreign-policy speech?
His proposals to foster economic growth by reducing regulation and corporate taxes?
His 2nd Amendment stance?
What I’d like to see happen next is the appearance of a candidate who favors limited government.
The other day I heard someone describe Trump vs Hillary as a false choice… But those are the choices. Anything can happens but with vanishingly small probabilities. We have a reality to face. Some will need time to get over their grief, but it must be done.
I’d like to see a society that believes in limited govt. It doesn’t exist. Even those that say they are for limited govt. prove themselves false. They really don’t want limited govt., they want govt. limited to those things they are interested in. They really don’t mind govt. stealing tax money as long as it’s spent for what they want. You can see this in the argument “it’s only pennies from each tax payer” as if that justifies theft.
Trump isn’t me, so he will disappoint me. Trump isn’t you, so he will disappoint you. But he isn’t pure evil like Hillary either. He is conservative in some respects even if not the rock you’d wish him to be. We can work with Trump. We can not work with Hillary. It’s even worse than that.
He has broken marriage vows repeatedly. Has screwed over so many business partners, investors and suppliers the list is to long to print, many will not even do business with him any longer he is so untrustworthy, Is a draft dodging coward and bragged about it..
about as pure evil as you can get.
There is nothing you can tell Trump worshipers about him that will shake their faith.
You’re talking about Bill Clinton, of course.
Just what the hell does a washed up ex president have to do with the current debate about trump.. stay the hell focused.. it is trump we are talking about not ex presidents.
He’s trying to point out how much voters care about your objection. If they cared about it, then they would have cared about Bill Clinton. They obviously don’t.
If there was ever a year for a libertarian breakthrough, this would be it.
Fantasy, not reality. The reality is the Hildabeast will continue Obama’s transformation of America possibly beyond the point of no return. A third party can only give it to Hillary.
Survive the next four years with Trump and we may be able to reverse the Obama transformation (which started long before Obama.)
Then will come the attacks on Johnson’s policies and positions themselves: How dare a presidential candidate suggest allowing people to just come to America and, assuming they don’t have a criminal record or a communicable disease, work legally! What is this, America in the 19th century? How will we ever bring peace to the Middle East if we’re not constantly
sending troops thereinviting hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants to move here?Yeah, this is clearly his year.
“People just wanted to see what happened next.”
In imageboard culture, there are “response macros,” images with text added, for use as responses in discussions.
I’m thinking of the one with an anime character with a frightening grin, with this message in blood red letters:
“There is a point where we needed to stop and we have clearly passed it,
but let’s keep going and see what happens.”
Yeah. This election is like that.
Hilary would beat a small-government candidate like a rented elephant. America isn’t the country it used to be.
America isn’t the country it used to be.
And they are working without letup to make it more so. We’ve gotten to the point where people can’t even imagine the freedom we used to take for granted. Soon that flame may die permanently.
Trump does have name recognition, but if you delude yourself into believing this is all about dumb voters supporting celebrity you will fail to see the truth. A majority (live with it) believe Trump represents them.
Trump is a fool. Trump is a con man. Trump doesn’t care what you believe. He’s a winner and a patriot. He fights. It’s about time someone calling themselves a republican did.
Trump doesn’t care what you believe.
That’s fine. I don’t care what an ignorant con man believes.
We are all ignorant and the most common con is of ourselves. Trump is just a man, not unlike almost every other. We have infinitely more in common than we do differences.
“Trump doesn’t care what you believe.”
Then Trump knows nothing about the foundation of the US government, the Enlightenment, about liberty, freedom, and the best way to prosper.
Obama doesn’t care what you believe either. Have you enjoyed the last 7.5 years thoroughly?
I was referring to what you incorrectly believe about him. I should have been more specific. You can’t have it both ways: He’s telling you what you want to hear or he doesn’t care. Neither. He’s very forthcoming. So much so that you belittle him for inconsistencies and totally disregard where he has been totally consistent.
You want him to fail.
“You can’t have it both ways: He’s telling you what you want to hear or he doesn’t care. ”
His objective is to win. He *IS* telling you what you want to hear and he “doesn’t care about what you think” other than to craftwhat to say THIS week in his speeches.
In terms of what he will actually do..he doesn’t care what you think.
” totally disregard where he has been totally consistent.”
He’s been consistent about building a wall and getting Mexico to pay for it. Never changed that position. I don’t disregard what people consistently say except when it’s anethema to what I believe.
But if they are consistently UN-consistent about extremely important things – I take notice.
“You want him to fail.”
I wanted him to fail to get the nomination.
And you are sounding precisely like an Obamabot – they, too, said that critics of Obama’s policies want him to fail. That claim has gone on for 7+ years.
I want the Nation to succeed and prosper which it could if we adhered to it’s founding principles. There’s absolutely zero reason to believe Trump even knows what they are let alone understands them.
From what he’s said, I expect Trump to get into trade wars with everyone, for example. This will not allow us to prosper.
His objective is to win. He *IS* telling you what you want to hear and he “doesn’t care about what you think” other than to craftwhat to say THIS week in his speeches.
Similar to every politician ever. Not sure what it is about Trump that makes the ordinary extraordinary.
Enforce current immigration laws? That becomes straight up fascism.
Responding to attacks made against him? Totalitarian with the inability to control himself.
I want a candidate who fights back rather than rolls over and would have supported any Republican who fought back. It is just totally bizarre how normal behavior is transformed through the power of sensational fear mongering into the worst evils humanity is capable of.
“I also agree that history will record that this was the fault of Bush and his donors, and the narcissism of Christie and Kasich.”
Regarding Kasich…….
There’s at least two ways to interpret the fact that he dropped out of the race 10 seconds after Cruz did:
1) While Cruz was viable and could prevent Trump from reaching 1237, Kasich had a slight prayer at a contested convention. Nobody likes Cruz and Trump was stopped so Kasich could think he would be a reasonable alternative after several ballots.
OR
2) Kasich was Trump’s straw and once Cruz left, his job was done.
I don’t really know as I don’t have insight into Kasich’s mind.
But if I was forced to bet, I’d bet #2.
#1 is so delusional as to be the fevered maunderings of the wildly insane.
#2 makes some sense. We may know if Trump wins the national election….if goodies come Kasich’s way then he was a straw.
On the other hand, we saw how Trump treats defeated opponents who then side with him (Christie). So Kasich might be in for a terrible shock, if he sold himself to Trump.
Kasich had considerable negotiation power as long as no other candidate was a clear winner. For example, he could have gotten a great deal from Trump or Cruz. Or from any political force that wants to block out both Trump and Cruz from the nomination.
Trump wasn’t my preference, and I’ve always been mainly a libertarian on most issues, but Gary Johnson, seriously?
If your goal is to build a permanent Democrat majority, he’s a great pick! Because that is exactly what his immigration policy would do. That also happens to be the same sort of immigration policy (the one the establishment sold out to special interests on and betrayed the base) that’s stoked so much of the anger that caused Trump. In fact, Gary Johnson’s immigration policy is even worse than Hillary’s.
I guess I should expect no less from the Party of Stupid.
That’s probably the biggest problem with him (and the Libertarian Party in general).
I’ve long considered the official party (and Gary Johnson) nuts in some ways, which is a big part of why I’ve always been a small “l” libertarian. 🙂
There are a lot of people (me very much included) who are very troubled by Trump. However, to get me to consider voting for someone else, that someone else would need to be two things; not simply a route to a Hillary win, and not worse than Trump. Gary Johnson is neither – even to a libertarian like me.
I don’t know if Trump will win or how he will govern if he does. I don’t think he would be any more damaging to conservatism than Jeb or Rubio.
There isn’t any single issue that points to Trump’s winning the primary. It was a confluence of conditions and superb positioning of Trump to take advantage of them.
One of the biggest factors in Trump’s win, is his work ethic. The man is on TV all the time. He travels nonstop all over the country. He does it all with not appearing tired but actually full of energy. Hillary always looks tired and she doesn’t work nearly as hard.
The other candidates had to do more than just show up to win. Cruz was the only one who came close, and many of the same people who are #NeverTrump were also #NeverCruz. These people were talking about supporting Hillary over Cruz or Trump. Why would anyone still be in the #NeverTrump fan club with them after that?
Well Roger Stone is talking about Cruz, and Trump with Alex Jones. I was not sure about Trump, until I heard where Cruz truly stood.
Most of the articles are hilarious. The GOP establishment has lost its collective mind. Trump is about as threatening as Tim the Tool Man Taylor and they’re going nuts. They might as well go full Cabin in the Woods and write:
What they’re saying is virtually the same as the end of the movie, where the director tells the kids
The country needs a radical course correction regarding immigration, trade, and political correctness, and Trump is the only person who routinely reaches beyond politics to penetrate our culture.
The reason Trump will have an impact where the other candidates wouldn’t is that he completely changes the national conversation. The public had come to completely accept that there would never be a wall. We had resigned ourselves to living with that political reality. We had resigned ourselves to the reality that giant, unreadable trade deals would only being replaced by even bigger ones. None of the other candidates had the power to change any of that. They’d talk and talk and talk about how maybe you get a slight different policy, based on sound conservative principles unless the public disagreed (see Jeb, Rubio, Kasich, Christie, etc).
Trump has the proclivity to shoot anything to the top of our consciousness. If tomorrow he said “Why shouldn’t we annex Canada?” the networks and online media would talk about nothing else for weeks. National Review would run scores of articles on why annexing Canada is a bad idea. People would be overheard at lunch counters saying “Well why shouldn’t we annex Canada?”
That’s a power Mitch McConnell, Jeb Bush, and the rest simply don’t have. They’re lucky to get a five second sound-bite. Nothing they say penetrates.
George Truther thinks that conservatives are “the GOP establishment” and Trump, Priebus, & Co aren’t. No surprise.
Trump implant is definitely working. 🙂
The truth is that Cruz was born in Alberta, a foreign country. That’s not allowed for the Presidency, otherwise birthers wouldn’t have ever existed.
If Trump was part of the establishment the establishment wouldn’t have run 60,000 attack ads against him, nor spent tens of millions of dollars attacking him, nor would they have backed Cruz, who they despise. Fortunately Cruz was a disposable candidate that McConnell could replace after the convention.
George Will and many others are going to try and stop Trump in the general election, preferring Hillary to someone who’s actually listening to the Republican’s conservative base about immigration and trade.
What swung me to Trump was that
1) Cruz is ineligible, so what is the establishment trying to pull?
2) Trump has all the right enemies.
La Raza, BLM, Hillary, Bernie, Pelosi, Obama, Jeb, Lindsay Graham, Paul Ryan, etc.
He’s so unconventional and unpredictable that the Democrats can’t figure out how to stop him. Hillary has two ads out that the left thinks are devastating, but as Scot Adams said, they’re examples of how not to make a campaign ad. I’m surprised they don’t end with “Donald Trump approves this message.”
“Donald Trump approves this message.”
Yep, they are hilarious.
NeverTrumpers keep telling us things we already know as if that will change minds. Keep it up, losers.
“He’s so unconventional and unpredictable that the Democrats can’t figure out how to stop him.”
I don’t think it’s hat hard to figure out:
Dems win with high turnout of their base.
Energize the Bernies by telling them that Trump will destroy their Socialist dream.
Energize the women by playing the endless Trump misogynistic sound bytes.
Energize the Hispanics by telling them Trump will throw them in jail, break up their families, take away their goodies hound and harass them.
Energize the african american community the same way.
It’s easy to build the campaign plan: carrying it off is another thing entirely.
You just said Democrats game plan for every election in modern history. Trump or no Trump, that is what they would do.
Energize the…
But he’s a dimocrat you keep telling me???
Any time I read an article that says everyone not GOPe is a fascist, it reminds me why no one likes the establishment.
Republicans would also do well to remember that democracy is not the only important value.
The voters already made their selection. Changing the process now is more fascistic than anything Trump has done.
Given the nature of his agenda and temperament
Oh please. What a load of BS.
The people claiming to stand on principle sure stooped to using the same baseless attacks that Democrats use pretty damn fast.
Maybe the GOPe should split off a form their own party, except the Democrat party already exists. Which makes their antipathy toward Trump so strange because he is a Democrat too.
Its almost like the GOPe has been trying this whole time to make Trump the nominee by campaigning harder against him than they did Obama.
As is the case in virtually all revolutions, the rulers have no idea how shallow their support is. Boehner, McConnell, Ryan, McCain, Romney, Reince Priebus, Jeb Bush, and the rest are not well loved. They have some name recognition, but are otherwise viewed by much of the voters as impotent grey apparatchiks who take meaningless votes because they’ve carefully made sure their votes have no consequences.
When the base is feeling impotent, they’re not going to turn to the embodiments of impotence to solve the problem. They voted for Trump because Rick Grimes didn’t run. They’re okay with a little bit of crazy. What they’re not okay with is uselessness and sleep walking through the apocalypse like nothing is wrong.
Jeb campaigned like he was running for over protective parent.of the year. He was rejected. Rand Paul campaigned as the angry uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. He was rejected. Fiorina campaigned as your HP corporate CEO who belonged at IBM. She was rejected. Ben Carson campaigned as Xanax. He was rejected. Rubio campaigned as Tickle-Me-Elmo. He was rejected. Kasich campaigned as a true Cub fan believing he’d get pennant no matter where the team was in the standings. He was rejected. Cruz campaigned as an angry, bitter televangelist chosen by God and George Washington to return us to Jesus. He was rejected.
That leaves the guy who just winged it the whole way, going off his gut instinct, with no real staff, no massive data mining operation, no vast pyramid of experts and operatives, none of anything the political professionals say is required for any attempt to win the White House. He had one simple message: “These people are morons.” It would seem so because he just shellacked them all. Even better, all the Cruz believers who pulled so many tricks to become delegates now have to fly to Cleveland and vote for their arch enemy. They’ve been owned.
Is Trump a conservative? One some subjects unquestionably, but not on others. He’s completely unconventional, and he punches back ten times harder. That will make our enemies wary of him. It might make us wary of him too, but the important thing is to keep our enemies worried about what we’re going to do, to deny them the confidence that they’ve got a read on our President and can play him like they played Obama at each and every turn.
Of course, letting Hillary win means they can just blackmail her or buy her outright. If we elect her she’ll be the first President to leave office richer than Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates and we’ll wonder why we’re all working on Chinese owned rice farms and when we became a banana republic.
when we became a banana republic.
That ship has sailed. All we can do now is give a loose cannon the helm. I remember a comedian saying America’s advantage in the world is that we’re crazy. He made some good points.
Voting Libertarian is an exercise in moral signaling, nothing more. Go look how many seats they’ve taken in Congress, or governors, or state legislatures.
From general observation, most Libertarians are more concerned with their ideological purity than actually accomplishing something. This is equally true for Libertarian candidates. This is why they’ve done so poorly.
“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”
No third party has done well in the past, but no major party ever nominated a candidate with negative popularity ratings as high as Hillary — until Donald Trump. This election will be unprecedented.
I think the Libertarian Party will do better as a result, but winning back the White House will probably require a new party that can attract both libertarians and conservatives who are fleeing the GOP.
With their support of Trump it’s as if American voters are confusing their power as voters in a democracy, with their power to vote for the contestants on reality TV.
Again with “it’s only celebrity?” Truly clueless Andrew. But throw it on the wall and see if it sticks.